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Objective To analyze the effect of benralizumab in severe eosinophilic asthma (SA) and chronic rhinosinusitis with polyps (CRSwP). Methods Retrospective review of patients with both SA and CRSwP that were treated with benralizumab. Asthma controlled test (ACT), pulmonary function metrics (FEV1), Meltzer endoscopic polyp scores, SNOT-22 scores, were collected before and after at least 4 months of benralizumab therapy. Results 23 patients were included. The mean age at the time of enrollment into benralizumab therapy was 50.47 ± 17.3 years and majority (65.2%, n = 15) were males. Pulmonary Effects: In comparison to baseline ACT, scores at four months showed significant improvement (p = 0.03). In those with pre and post spirometry measurements, mean FEV1 showed significant increase following benralizumab therapy (p = 0.04) with a mean increase of 547 mL ± 597 mL following therapy. Sinonasal Effects: 78.5% of subjects on benralizumab had a significant improvement in sinonasal symptoms (p = 0.009) based on their SNOT-22 scores. Additionally, there was an improvement in endoscopic polyp scores, although not statistically significant, following benralizumab therapy (p = 0.2) with 54.5% patients showing improvement. Conclusion Usage of benralizumab in patients with SA and CRSwNP can lead to significantly improved asthma control, lung function, and sinonasal quality of life. Additionally, in this patient population, there was a subset of patients that showed a significant reduction in polyp burden.

Clothing might not come to mind when people think of plastic pollution. But polyester, derived from crude oil, makes up half the total fiber used in the global manufacture of textiles for apparel, ...

Objective: The mainstay of treatment in sinonasal malignancy (SNM) is surgery, and when combined with chemoradiation therapy, often leads to the best overall prognosis. Nasal endoscopy is essential for post-treatment surveillance along with physical exam and radiologic evaluation. The ability to directly visualize the sinus cavities after surgery may also improve early detection of tumor recurrence and is another reason to potentially advocate for surgery in these patients. Methods: A retrospective chart review of medical records of patients with pathologically proven SNM was conducted from 2005 to 2019. Results: The nasal cavity and maxillary sinus were the most common primary tumor sub-sites. The most common pathology was squamous cell carcinoma (42%). The median time to recurrence was 9.8 months. Recurrence was initially detected endoscopically in 34.3% patients, by imaging in 62.7% patients, and by physical exam in 3.0% patients. 67 (29%) total recurrences were detected on follow-up, of which 46 (68.7%) were local. Twenty-three of the local recurrences were identified via nasal endoscopy. Thirteen recurrences were identified via endoscopic surveillance within the surgically patent paranasal sinuses while 13 were identified within the nasal cavity; 5 patients had multiple sites of recurrence. Conclusion: Local recurrence of SNM is the most common site for recurrent disease and nasal endoscopy identified half of these cases. 50% of these recurrences were within the paranasal sinuses and would not have been easily identified if the sinuses were not open for inspection. Thus, open sinus cavities aid in the detection of tumor recurrence and is another advantage of surgery in the management of SNM.

Natural gas is racing neck and neck with coal to be the top fuel for generating electricity in the U.S. thanks to increased use of techniques, such as hydraulic fracturing, that extract the gas from unconventional sources. Since burning natural gas emits half as much carbon dioxide as does burning coal, the natural gas boom has helped lower per capita carbon emissions in the U.S. over the past decade. However, a major downside of natural gas is that it leaks. Millions of tons every year—roughly 9 million tons in the U.S. alone—spill into the atmosphere during extraction, storage, and transport. Because natural gas comprises 95% methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 86 times as much heat as does carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, leaking just 2–3% of the gas that’s produced worldwide can wipe out its environmental benefits over coal. “The short-term climate punch of waste methane is equivalent

The cofounder and CEO of Ambercycle wants to shake up the fashion industry with a new fabric recycling process.

Renewables are poised to expand by 50 percent in the next five years, according to the International Energy Agency. Much of that wind and solar power will need to be stored. But a growing electric-vehicle market might not leave enough lithium and cobalt for lithium-ion grid batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries boast a powerful blend of energy capacity and long cycle life. But they have a dangerous tendency to burst into flames, leading to injuries, product recalls, and flight bans. Researchers have touted solid-state lithium batteries as a safer alternative. These devices swap out flammable liquid electrolytes for an inert solid such as plastic or ceramic. But researchers have pursued solid-state battery technology for decades without coming up with any products.

Hooking up solar panels to batteries is the norm for storing extra energy produced when the sun is shining. To streamline this process, researchers have developed a lithium-ion battery that can be ...

By converting heat into electricity, thermoelectric generators (TEGs) could power activity trackers or other wearable gadgets using the wearer’s own body heat. Researchers have now made a highly st...

In the 1966 movie “Fantastic Voyage,” a shrunken submarine called Proteusis injected into a scientist’s body so the vessel’s crew can operate on his brain. That may be science fiction, but tiny devices that can monitor health have already become reality. Battery-powered, swallowable cameras the size of a large pill have been on the market since 2001. About a dozen companies make such capsules to take pictures of the esophagus, small intestine, and colon as the capsules move through the gastrointestinal tract—offering a less invasive alternative to endoscopies and colonoscopies. And in 2012, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration cleared for human use a silicon chip the size of a grain of sand that can be embedded in pharmaceutical pills to monitor whether people are taking prescribed drugs as they should. But ingestibles could do much more than just snap pictures and tattle on patients who skip their meds. Engineers

In the age of flash memory and DNAbased data storage, magnetic tape sounds like an anachronism. But the workhorse storage technology is racing along. Scientists at IBM Research say they can now store 201 gigabits per square inch on a special "sputtered" tape made by Sony Storage Media Solutions. The palm-size cartridge, into which IBM scientists squeezed a kilometer-long ribbon of tape, could hold 330 terabytes of data, or roughly 330 million books' worth. By comparison, the largest solid-state drive, made by Seagate, is twice as big and can store 60 TB, while the largest hard disk can store only 12 TB. IBM's best commercial tape cartridge, which began shipping this year, holds 15 TB.

The driving range of electric vehicles increases every year, but the hours it takes to recharge their batteries slow them down. Researchers now report a battery electrode based on black phosphorus ...

Heat, whether from the sun or from engines and furnaces, is often wasted. Thermophotovoltaic devices, which convert heat into electricity, promise a superefficient way to scavenge it. And they coul...

Researchers have developed a method that uses standard red, green, blue, and violet LEDs in place of UV light to 3-D print objects with speed and detail rivaling that of state-of-the-art printers (...

Brick walls might someday power your lights and laptop, thanks to a new technique that converts the building blocks into battery-like devices ( 2020, DOI: ). By packing bricks’ tiny pores with cond...

Researchers have found a way to print complex 3-D structures inside live mice (Nat. Biomed. Eng. 2020, DOI: 10.1038/s41551-020-0568-z). By injecting a light-sensitive bioink and then shooting infra...

Perovskites, the star photovoltaic materials that efficiently convert light to electricity, have another impressive energy-producing capability. Scientists have discovered that light also boosts th...

Printed electronic circuits are integral parts of low-cost sensors and other devices, but they’ve been limited to the 2-D domain. Researchers have now pulled printed circuits into the third dimensi...

To make ultrastrong yet lightweight materials for aerospace components, researchers have in the past decade created complex 3-D lattices that are mostly air but gain strength from their intricate c...

The fetal electrocardiogram (f-ECG) beats analysis as well as the heart rate interpretation using the raw ECG signals captured by machine helps in providing the state of the fetus in pregnancy. For timely detection of the fetal arrhythmias, monitoring fetal ECGs constantly is important. In this paper, we are presenting the framework for detection of fetal from maternal ECG based on sparse binary matrix using Compressive Sensing. Additionally, we are presenting the preprocessing algorithm on raw fetus ECG data to remove the noises like impulsive artifacts along with notch filtering for baseline removal. The proposed method is on the basis of sparse representation of the components that are acquired using Independent Component Analysis (ICA) method, which is designed for direct application in the compressed domain. Detection of fetal ECG is performed on the basis of activated atoms in a specially designed Gaussian dictionary. The verification of the proposed framework has been carried out on ten samples of Challenge dataset A by determining QRS detection parameters such as sensitivity, $\mathbf{S}= 90.62\%$ and positive predictivity, given by P+= 99.15%.

Space is open for business, and some entrepreneurs plan to make the final frontier into a manufacturing hub. There's plenty of real estate. But it takes a few thousand dollars to launch a kilogram of stuff into space.

The lightest element has carried a heavy burden for half a century. Expectations for the hydrogen economy, first proposed in the 1970s, have been high. But hydrogen as a renewable, low-carbon fuel for vehicles, heating, and energy storage has remained evasive, held back by high costs, low efficiency, and a lack of infrastructure and storage technologies.

For patients in need of an organ transplant, the odds are bleak. Only around 30,000 people got transplants in the U.S. last year, while more than 8,000 died waiting, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. In the U.S., 120,000 people are on the waitlist for organs; China’s list contains 1.5 million names. The World Health Organization estimates that the black market created by this soaring demand results in 10,000 illegal transplants each year.

The purpose of this study was to assess the General Health-Related Physical Fitness Levels of college-going girls of Maharashtra. For this purpose, 58 students were measured for Body composition (BMI, WHR and Fat.%), Muscular Strength (Hand and pinch, standing high Jump), Muscular endurance (Sit-ups, Push-ups and Trunk lift), Flexibility (Sit and Reach and Shoulder Stretch) and Aerobic Fitness (Queens College Step Test). Results indicate that around 52 and 21% of girls fell in Acceptable and Obese category of Body Fat.%. Girls demonstrated poor scores for hand and pinch strength, but performed averagely in standing high jump. It is crucial to note that girls had a lot of difficulty while performing Push-ups and Sit-ups, thus indicating poor muscular endurance. Majority of them were having good shoulder flexibility, but average low back flexibility. Aerobic test was not completed by 9% of girls and 14% had poor VO2 max scores. Overall the health status of the girls needs to be improved in hand strength, muscular endurance, aerobic fitness and low back flexibility.

Sexual harassment is endemic at U.S. universities and colleges, and the policies and procedures currently in place to prevent it are not working. That's the searing takeaway from a report released in June by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Some research institutions are now seeking quantitative ways to measure and track the efficacy of their antiharassment programs-while others remain quiet.

Perovskite solar cells are at the edge of commercial success. Device efficiency records break at a regular pace, while stability and optimization are progressing rapidly. The first commercial products could reach the market within the next year, only a decade since perovskite photovoltaics were first discovered. MRS Bulletin presents coverage of the most recent impactful advances in the burgeoning field of perovskite research.

Amy Prieto decided to pursue battery research when she started as an assistant professor of chemistry at Colorado State University in 2005. The field was a perfect bridge between her Ph.D. studies in solid-state materials for electronic devices and her postdoctoral work in measuring transport properties of nanostructured materials. It turned out to be a fruitful decision. She has patented novel battery materials and a unique manufacturing process that together revamp decades-old lithium-ion technology. Her lithium-ion battery, built on a foundation of electroplated copper foam, is more flexible, safer, less expensive, and more environmentally friendly than batteries currently on the market. In 2009, just four years after embarking on her research, she founded a company, Prieto Battery, to develop the technology for commercial use. The start-up caught the eyes of the power-tool manufacturer Stanley Black & Decker and the computer technology giant Intel, both of which invested in the technology

The chemist discusses her work to commercialize a lithium-ion battery with a new architecture.

Chemist Jas Pal Badyal is committed to solving big problems with very small tools: layers of functional molecules only a few nanometers thick. His ultrathin coatings have entered the marketplace on clothing, footwear, and electronics. They impart water-repellent, antibacterial abilities to around three-quarters of the world’s hearing aids and more than 100 million cell phones. After launching three successful high-tech start-ups, the Durham University professor is now tackling social problems in developing nations. He spoke with Prachi Patel about creating coated materials that can harvest and purify water, a need for countries in the developing world. How do you make your liquid-repellent nanocoatings? We essentially control chemical reactions that occur on solid surfaces using plasma discharges, which are clouds of ionized atoms. One way we do it is to repeatedly expose the surface to a short pulse, usually microseconds, of plasma discharge followed by a longer off time lasting milliseconds.

Perovskites have received a lot of attention as semiconductor materials for solar cells because they’re inexpensive and easy to make. But attempts to make transistors using perovskites have resulted in devices that quickly stop working. Now, by swapping out the insulating material, researchers have made perovskite transistors that work much longer than past devices (ACS Mater. Lett. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsmaterialslett.9b00357). Transistors are electronic switches that flip between the 1 and 0 of digital logic. In these devices, a voltage applied at a gate electrode turns the flow of current on and off through a channel made of a semiconductor such as silicon. An insulating layer—traditionally silicon dioxide—protects the channel from the gate voltage. A team led by Aditya D. Mohite of Rice University instead made transistors with a more effective insulating material, hafnium dioxide, and used the perovskite methylammonium lead iodide as the channel semiconductor. Changing the insulator overcame a

Solar cells made with nanowires can tolerate up to 40 times as much high-energy radiation as those made of flat crystalline films, making the nano versions well suited for powering satellites and s...

Pacifiers can soothe fussy babies and help keep parents sane. Researchers have turned these baby-care must-haves into high-tech sensors that could track levels of glucose and other chemicals in an infant’s saliva (Anal. Chem. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b03379). Joseph Wang of the University of California San Diego, Alberto Escarpa of the University of Alcala, and colleagues made the binky biosensor by combining silicone nipples from commercial pacifiers with a custom 3-D printed back end that contains an electrochemical sensor. They inserted a small poly(vinyl chloride) tube containing a series of three polystyrene valves that keep saliva from flowing back into the baby’s mouth. Sucking squeezes the nipple, drawing in saliva and forcing it to the back of the tube, where it contacts a disposable electrode coated with an enzyme that oxidizes glucose. Electronics in the pacifier cap measure changes in current that correlate to glucose levels and transmit the data to

Inspired by a scuba-diving spider, researchers have made water-repelling copper electrode surfaces that boost carbon dioxide reduction by trapping the gas in bubbles (Nat. Mater. 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41563-019-0445-x). Compared to conventional electrodes, this design converts five times as much CO2 into the valuable chemicals ethylene and ethanol. Electrochemical processes that use wind or solar power to convert CO2 into hydrocarbons could be a win-win for the environment. The process would provide a use for CO2 captured from the air or other sources, provide a way to store intermittent renewable electricity, and offer an alternative source of chemicals that are otherwise made from petroleum. Copper has proved the best CO2-reducing electrocatalyst so far. Researchers typically immerse copper-coated porous electrodes in an aqueous solution containing CO2. When electricity is applied, copper triggers the reduction of CO2 into a mix of carbon monoxide and other products such as methane, ethylene, and ethanol. But

Researchers have constructed microscopic carbon structures that boast the best combination of strength and elasticity of any material studied to date (Nat. Nanotechnol. 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41565-019-0486-y). The tiny carbon pillars are stronger by weight than most existing materials and can bounce back after being pressed to half their size. The columns are also lightweight and heat resistant, making them ideal for use in aerospace components, engines, and nuclear reactor parts. Engineers could use these microscopic structures as building blocks for macroscopic materials, says Julia R. Greer, a materials scientist at the California Institute of Technology. With the pillars’ unique combination of properties, “you could build robust parts for any extreme thermal mechanical environment,” she says. The words strong and rubbery do not typically go together for materials. Strong materials are usually hard, while elastic materials that can recover their original shape after being deformed are pliable. Combining ...

Thermoelectric materials can generate power from waste heat and provide ecofriendly cooling. Researchers have now made an efficient thermoelectric power generator from copper selenide, a material that many rejected decades ago (Joule 2019, DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2019.04.010). The material, which contains abundant, nontoxic elements and is more efficient than state-of-the-art thermoelectrics, could open up the technologies for broader use. Thermoelectrics are used in niche applications, such as climate-controlled car seats. Researchers trying to bring them into wider use by making more efficient, less expensive materials have been tantalized by metallic compounds such as copper selenide. In this material, ions flow fast and free, just as they do in liquids. This becomes a liability in a thermoelectric module because the free-flowing ions deposit on the electrode and ruin the device after just a few hours. Researchers led by Xun Shi and Lidong Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and G. Jeffrey Snyder

Designing sensors that mimic those in human skin could lead to more realistic prosthetic limbs, ones that can feel a light touch or the warm sun. But flexible electronic skin so far has not incorporated the small feelers that make mammals unique: hair. Now, by placing microscopic polymer hairs on top of graphene, researchers have made a skin-like sensing device that can feel wind and detect its direction and angle (ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b01427). Changhyun Pang of Sungkyunkwan University and colleagues built an array of sensors by depositing a thin film of graphene nanoflakes on a piece of flexible polyethylene. Applying pressure to the sensors pushes the nanoflakes together, changing the electrical resistance. On top of the array, the researchers placed a poly(dimethylsiloxane) film molded with a forest of microscopic pillars. Airflow bends the pillars and puts pressure on the graphene sensors, changing their output current. To

As silicon transistors get harder to shrink, researchers are turning to 2-D semiconductors to try to continue producing tiny, powerful electronics. But attaching metal electrodes to atoms-thick 2-D...

A fast and easy method to produce conductive graphene yarn in bulk could open the door to mass production of wearable textile electronics (ACS Nano 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b00319). Nazmul Karim and Kostya S. Novoselov of the University of Manchester and colleagues made the flexible, washable yarn using an industrial dyeing process capable of producing 1,000 kg of the yarn in about half an hour, they say. The key is a new graphene-based dye. To make it, the researchers first dispersed graphene oxide flakes in water, then used ascorbic acid and sodium hydrosulfite to partially reduce the flakes to graphene. Next, they added polymers to the solution to prevent the flakes from clumping. They dyed a hank of cotton yarn with this solution using a lab-scale replica of a commercial yarn-dyeing machine. The partially reduced graphene oxide flakes retain some oxygen-containing functional groups that bond with the cellulose in the cotton